‘Riverdale’ Cast Describes Filming the Death of Luke Perry’s Character as ‘Surreal’ and ‘Brutal’

They’re still hurting. Some of the actors who play parents on Riverdale appeared on the Today show on October 8 and spoke about the premiere of the new season and the death of fellow cast member Luke Perry. One of the hosts asked the cast after they showed a clip from the premiere, “It’s powerful watching it on the show. I can only imagine what it was like for you guys doing the read-through and actually having to relive the grief that you felt at the time. What was that even like?” Mark Consuelos replied, “Surreal,” and Skeet Ulrich added, “Yeah. Pretty brutal.”

“I don’t think anyone got through it with a dry eye at all,” Marisol Nichols said. “It was really hard to film, to go back,” Skeet added. “We’d had a long season of shooting, and it was hard to dive into (it), for sure, to dredge all that up.”

Luke died at the age of 52 after he suffered a “massive” stroke, In Touch confirmed on March 4. “He was surrounded by his children, Jack and Sophie, fianceé Wendy Madison Bauer, ex-wife Minnie Sharp, mother Ann Bennett, stepfather Steve Bennett, brother Tom Perry, sister Amy Coder and other close family and friends,” Luke’s rep, Arnold Robinson, said in a statement at the time.

After his passing, Luke’s 90210 and Riverdale costars shared tributes to the lost actor. Molly Ringwald, who plays Mary Andrews on Riverdale, wrote on Twitter, “My heart is broken. I will miss you so much, Luke Perry. Sending all my love to your family. ❤️ #LukePerry.” KJ Apa spoke about his late costar, who played his father on the show, during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on April 26 and said, “Luke is the kind of person who did everything he can to make whoever you are — no matter how big or small you are — comfortable and feel welcome. I think yeah, it’s hard to kind of put into words what I feel, but yeah. We had a really close relationship.”

Mark also spoke about KJ and Luke’s relationship during the Today show appearance and said, “KJ was so close to Luke, you know. They had that father-son relationship. I haven’t seen the (premiere) episode, but I’ve heard his work is just beautiful on this.” As painful as it was for all of them to relive their friend and costars death, we’re sure they all did Luke’s life and his work justice with the tribute on the series.